Jim O'Neill defends Globalisation

Jim O'Neill wins today's award for money-for-old rope with an article that defends globalisation. The only way that this differs from a good student defending the issue, is that by using the example of the Chilean economy which has grown despite its dependence upon copper exports, he's provided a specific case study to support the argument.

It would have been more interesting to argue that globalisation has also enabled resource-poor economies, like South Korea, to develop, although, admittedly, this is also due to the extent to which it benefitted from US aid, and, as Ha-Joon Chang argues, a willingness to resist pressures to adopt a purely free market approach to development.